You might be interested in this piece by Michael Schulman at Politico. Here’s a representative snippet:
HONG KONG — I really don’t want to be a China hawk. The whole idea goes against my belief in openness and the great things that can be accomplished by it. But the current Chinese leadership is leaving me no choice: They are a threat to democracy, and those who care about civil liberties can no longer pretend they aren’t.
My journey to that unfortunate conclusion has been painful. I’ve witnessed the progress achieved by engagement with China for the past 40 years. Like many of us from democratic societies, I’d like to see it continue.
But it’s become increasingly clear that it can’t, because Chinese leader Xi Jinping doesn’t share that vision: He wants a world where China dominates the commanding heights of the global economy and dictates the rules of international diplomacy and discourse. And such a world is not safe for democracy.
Read the whole thing.
I don’t believe he says anything that has not been completely obvious to anyone with actual insights into China. Rather than dividing opinion between “China hawks” and “China doves” a more productive way of looking at things might be by contrasting the idealists and the pragmatists. The idealists have believed and I guess to cling bitterly to the belief that a more prosperous, productive China that trades maintains relations with the rest of the world will necessarily be more politically liberal and democratic. Pragmatists have always realized that was unlikely.
Pragmatically, there is no way to prevent China from becoming the World Hegemon. By now, that’s baked in.
China is a dictatorship, and they will favor other dictatorships. But the greatest threat to American democracy is the American left. A permanent Democrat Party majority will also be a dictatorship. The National Guard troops in the Capitol and the razor wire around it are Step One.